By Bruce Blackshaw and Perry Hendricks Why is it immoral to deliberately give a fetus fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)? In our paper Strengthening the Impairment Argument Against Abortion, we provided one possible answer: it is wrong because it deprives the fetus of a future of value. In other words, the future of an unimpaired fetus […]
Month: November 2020
Healthcare must stop ignoring future patients!
By Christian Munthe, Davide Fumagalli and Erik Malmqvist Most countries with publicly funded healthcare systems have ethically informed priority setting schemes to decide how to allocate scarce resources. Established principles in such schemes recognise patients’ need of care, the effects of interventions, and background requirements of equal consideration and cost-effectiveness. However, the typical use of […]
Vaccine distribution ethics: monotheism or polytheism?
By Alberto Giubilini, Julian Savulescu and Dominic Wilkinson. Pfizer has reported preliminary results that their mRNA COVID vaccine is 90% effective during phase III trials. The hope is to have the first doses available for distribution by the end of the year. Discussion has quickly moved to how the vaccine should be distributed in the […]
Terrible choices in the septic child
By David Wright and Joshua Parker. The Pharmacogenetics to Avoid Loss Of Hearing (PALOH) trial has created some interesting and important discussions. Questions regarding what should be considered “routine care”, whether parental choice should alter routine care and the fundamental question of whether consent for genetic testing should be considered differently to non-genetic testing. However […]
The return of psychedelics to psychiatry. Can the therapeutic effects of psychedelic experiences be justified?
By Riccardo Miceli McMillan. The use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to treat mental illness is a paradigm which is reattracting significant attention both within medico-scientific communities as well as the public more broadly. After a long hiatus from their controversial debut during the 1960’s, psychedelics such as psilocybin (one of the active ingredients inside so-called ‘magic’ […]
Why your doctor may be right to not tell you about your abnormal results
By Patrick Burch. As a GP I spend a significant proportion of time interpreting blood results. When a patient has any test performed, they should understand why it is being done and have consented to it. However, in many cases, perhaps the majority, patients are not fully aware what blood tests are being done and […]
Prioritizing trust and consistency when allocating ventilators
By Alexander T.M. Cheung and Brendan Parent Rationing healthcare resources never sits well with all parties involved. By definition, someone gets left out. Various values, contrary perspectives, and practical considerations all must be weighed before reaching a morally passable, though imperfect, compromise. Yet never has the question of rationing so acutely needed answering in the […]
Ethical decision making when demand for intensive care exceeds available resources. The need for public discussion.
By Tim Cook, Kim J Gupta, Robin Fackrell, Sarah Wexler, Bernie Marden Early in the COVID-19 pandemic the first author of this blog wrote a Guardian article which was titled “ICU doctors now face the toughest decisions they will ever have to make.” It referred to the possibility – then expected to be a reality […]
Breaking bad news during the COVID-19 pandemic – a dilemma for paramedics, their patients and their loved ones
By Iain Campbell. The initial stages of the lockdown that happened in the UK in 2020 was a hectic time to be working on ambulances in London. Like many of our colleagues across the NHS, we were encountering a large number of very unwell patients. There was a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty, […]
Good health policy requires good moral philosophy
By Derek Soled. Now, more than ever, countries around the world need good health policy. While more big data and efficiency are important, better integration of the humanities embodied in moral philosophy will help achieve this goal. In policymaking decisions, ethicists deserve a place at the table as their insights into human behaviour are essential […]